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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
Nathan Ross wrote:


I don't think it means that he effectively fought three simultaneous battles in different places, which is what I suspect your plan of using different valleys would turn into.

We will have to differ on this point.

Nathan Ross wrote:
I'm increasingly convinced that Tacitus's 'defile' was a gap between hills, a pass or a saddle, ideally a through-route that the Romans could block. This would seem more likely than the idea of Paulinus wedging his troops into a closed valley with no easy route of retreat.

I think that is exactly what the scenario at Dunstable probably is so I am not convinced you have changed your opinion at all.  Smile

It doesn’t mean however that it doesn’t have its merits.

We do have to take Tacitus’ words into account that does imply that the site was “sheltered in the rear by a thick forest” or “closed in the rear by a forest”, unless this can be translated differently.

Dunstable of course had Watlng Street running through it........
 
Nathan Ross wrote:

However, I doubt the Britons would have divided their force at this point. Their advantage was in overwhelming numbers, and they would have wanted to bring all their available strength against the Roman front line, which was clearly visible right in front of them.

I think that we often forget the sheer size of the Brythonic force. Two hundred and thirty thousand people take up a huge amount of room and unless they are condensed and subsequently trapped as in the “defile and surrounding wagons scenario”, it is difficult to contain them.

In the Aldbury battle site scenario you describe, the whole site and the whole Roman Army could have been surrounded by Brythons 25 deep with only 140,000 warriors with the other 90,000 watching possibly.
 
Nathan Ross wrote:
They were not a trained army, but a collection of individuals from a warrior culture, who wanted to display their bravery.

I am not totally convinced of this.

From the writings of Caesar he had high regard for the Brythonic armies that were sent against him.

Also I find it hard to believe that these tribes were less able than the forces that had managed to keep the Roman armies occupied for 17 years.

Caesar remarks how adept the Brythons were at sending in groups of fighters, chariots or cavalry being thrown into battle, engaging and then being withdrawn to be replaced by other groups.

They were also used to fighting from behind barricades.

The methodology was different as the Brythons did not fight like the Roman Legion as a well drilled machine but without substantial cavalry support the Romans were unable to effect substantial victories.

Dio states that the fighting went on for a considerable period before the Romans were victorious.

It was the wagons in this case that were the difference which stopped the Brythons from escaping although 150,000 fled allegedly.

The Aldbury scenario does not allow for this as there are too many escape routes.
 
Nathan Ross wrote:
I've been thinking over this problem of crops and planting and so on. It's not as easy as it looks!
As far as I can work out, the usual timing is as follows:

October - plant winter crops
April - plant spring crops
July-August - harvest both winter and spring crops


As you know I have already investigated this and I agree that it is not as easy as it looks.

I am not of your opinion as it assumes that the Brythons would have planted Spring wheat rather than rely on the Winter wheat as even today 95% of wheat grown in the UK is Winter wheat.

Spring wheat is as far as I can ascertain planted in February or the latest March so it is likely that the Spring wheat would have already been planted before the uprising started.  

 Fig: A

.pdf   UK AGRICULTURE.pdf (Size: 122.15 KB / Downloads: 4)
 
I therefore think that it must have been the Winter wheat that was not planted.
Deryk
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Messages In This Thread
Re: Calling all armchair generals! - by Ensifer - 03-11-2010, 03:13 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-18-2012, 06:26 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 12:02 AM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 02:50 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 05:40 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 11:26 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 05:11 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 09:42 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 10:10 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 03:11 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 03:25 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 08:36 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-26-2012, 02:57 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-27-2012, 01:50 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 08-05-2012, 02:24 PM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-07-2014, 02:18 PM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-08-2014, 01:50 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-11-2014, 02:03 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-18-2014, 07:54 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-20-2014, 02:37 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-25-2014, 08:29 AM
RE: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand. - by Theoderic - 12-01-2015, 11:51 PM

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